Photo : Cliché Delcourt
The Cabaret Voltaire
History meets punk spirit as two visionary artists unpack the chaotic birth of the Dada movement through a fresh graphic lens. You will get an exclusive look at how they turned archives of twentieth-century rebellion into a striking visual narrative.
Bibliothèque Forney (Paris 4th)
About
In a hundred or so days, in 1916 in Zurich, a troupe of artists took over the Cabaret Voltaire and burned all the codes of the old world. José-Louis Bocquet & Kent offer a completely original account of the genesis of the Dada movement and contemporary artistic revolutions.
1916, in the heart of a Europe in flames, a group of young artists proclaimed insubordination and the revolt of the senses. Every night Dada burned all the codes of the old world in an artistic firework display – singing, poetry, music, painting –. Since that spring of 1916, Dada has irrigated all forms of rebellion of the 20th century, from the surrealists to the situationists, and up to the punks. Dada is now a historical fact. The adventure of the Cabaret Voltaire is its genesis.
The meeting will be an opportunity to understand how a comic book is created: research into historical sources, inspiration for both artists, the work of translating words and concepts into images, etc.
Oral exchanges, projections of the final plates, and a presentation of the preparatory work will illustrate the evening.
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The speakers
Kent was born in Lyon, into a working-class family. As a kid, he fell into comic books, and at 14, he caught the rock virus and plucked his first guitar chords. These two passions would henceforth be two dreams to achieve and the driving force of a life. On the school benches, he met three other boys with whom he started a band. They would soon become known under the name Starshooter. In 1976, he published his first drawings in Métal Hurlant, and in 1977, Starshooter released its first 45 rpm record in the midst of the punk explosion. In 1982, the group split up, and Kent then devoted himself fully to comics. Between 1982 and 1986, he published 6 albums at Humanoïdes Associés and Futuropolis. He resumed music and achieved consecration in 1992 with the album Tous les hommes, acclaimed by critics, and with the song "Juste quelqu’un de bien" for Enzo Enzo, Victoire de la Musique in 1995. Scherzando, his latest musical album, was released in 2022. This portrait would be incomplete if it did not mention Kent as the author of 6 novels, an essay on songwriting (Dans la tête d'un chanteur), and two children's books.
José-Louis Bocquet published his first novels in the Série Noire at Gallimard and has signed subsequent ones at Le Masque, Buchet/Chastel, and La Table Ronde. He is also the author of monographs dedicated to Henri-Georges Clouzot, Georges Lautner, André Franquin, and René Goscinny. A comic book writer, he started in 1983 in the pages of Métal Hurlant where he met Kent. Since then, he has collaborated with Serge Clerc, Arno, Berthet, Stanislas, Cuzor, Loustal, Floc’h, Cailleaux, and Edith. Since 2006, with the illustrator Catel, he has signed the bio-graphics of exceptional women such as Kiki de Montparnasse, Olympe de Gouges, Joséphine Baker, Alice Guy, and Anita Conti. As an editor, he started at Humanoïdes Associés. Editorial Director of Dupuis France between 2006 and 2021, he managed the Aire Libre label.
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The Cabaret Voltaire by Kent, Bocquet - Album | Editions Delcourt
